Goodyear Faces Backlash at NASCAR for Moving Jobs to China

Posters are popping up all over NASCAR’s Race Week in Texas blasting Goodyear for moving jobs from the United States to China and Mexico.

The street art states that “NASCAR needs a tire change,” noting that it has been a “good year” for Mexico and China. The posters direct viewers to use the hashtag #TireChange to tell the company to stop shipping jobs overseas.

NASCAR has exclusively partnered with Goodyear for their tires since 1954, it is one of the longest-running sponsor programs in any sport.

“We are tremendously proud of the pivotal role Goodyear plays in the best racing competition in the world and excited that NASCAR drivers will be crossing the finish line on Goodyear tires in the years ahead,” Rich Kramer, chairman, CEO and president of Goodyear, said when they renewed their contract with NASCAR in 2017. “With this new agreement in place, we celebrate our enduring relationship with NASCAR and the continuing value of NASCAR to the Goodyear brand”

Kramer may be hitting a PR nightmare however, as those who are sick of seeing jobs leaving our nation call for NASCAR to partner with a company that is loyal to Americans.

Goodyear completed their $550 million factory in San Luis Potosi, Mexico in 2017. It was the company’s first new factory in the Americas in a quarter of a decade, and their most advanced one yet.

“The 1 million-plus-square-feet facility represents a US$ 550 million investment and is expected to manufacture six million tires a year, including the Goodyear Eagle F1 and the Goodyear Wrangler All-Terrain Adventure with Kevlar,” Mexico Now reported at the time of its opening.

In April of this year, Mexican Goodyear employees staged a strike after a worker passed out and broke three ribs and, according to a report from Fox News, “workers got news that the long-awaited increase to their $1.50-per hour wages would amount to only about 50 cents per day.” Goodyear defended the low pay by saying that it “complies with all Mexican labor laws and regulations.”

Bringing jobs back to the US has been one of the most important goals of the Trump administration — and they have been succeeding. Hundreds of companies have already vowed to do so thanks to new tax cuts and reforms.